Newsletter 7/14/2015

Last week, we compared applying to college with running a political campaign. We helped you understand yourself a little more, and we let you know what colleges actually want you to tell them! Now that you’ve got all that abstract knowledge, we’re ready to discuss more concrete topics.

Brainstorming now will give you more time to write later! You should start thinking about your essay’s content once you have some ideas. What should you include, you ask?

There are two key components to any college application: “story time” and “introspection.” Story time consists of you recounting an experience you have had, and introspection consists of you analyzing what happened to you and how it made you a better applicant.

Most of the essays we read have way too much story time — it’s by far the easier of the two to write. This mistake gets boatloads of people rejected every year.

Bloom’s Taxonomy, which you may have heard of, provides an explanation as to why. In Bloom’s Taxonomy, recounting stories is the lowest level of thinking possible, but evaluation (introspection) is the highest one. It’s extremely important to show off your critical thinking skills to colleges! We recommend a 40/60 split between story time and introspection. Read more in our Writing Center!

This balance is tough to get right, but at Prompt, we take pride in helping college applicants like you choose exactly what to include in their essays. When you have a draft of your essay ready to go, upload it and we’ll happily review its content, structure, flow, grammar and more!

For $28 for 48-hour feedback or $37 for 6-hour feedback, your essay will help admissions officers get to know you while simultaneously showing off your critical thinking skills. Use the promo code eBook and get $10 off your first edit! With our help, your “reach schools” are within reach!

We’ll make sure your essay is textbook — because we quite literally wrote the book on college admissions essays. Grab our FREE EBOOK (which contains everything we’ve learned from reviewing tons of essays) if you want college essay tips more than once per week.

Now stop reading this and start writing an essay that will make your dreams come true.
-The Prompt Team